Danny, I am most certainly secular and elitist, but please don’t call me a celebrity.

The fact that the Rockies have had no faith days is very significant. These events as held by the Nats, D-Backs, Braves and Marlins are team-sponsored Which means the organizations are officially promoting the events and the ideas behind them. Now that’s pressure! That more than any loony quote from an owner in an article says to me there’s an organizational philosophy that heavily factors in religion. The organization in this case is putting more than its stamp of approval on the ideas — it’s putting money behind them to promulgate them.

I think we will just have to agree to disagree about whether the Rockies were misrepresented in that USA Today article or not. I agree that there is a controversy, but I am glad that no one is bringing it up now in regards to the Rockies. I guess that’s because either the whole issue is inconsequential or people feel the Rockies really aren’t the poster boys for religion and baseball that some are making them out to be.

But, I assure you, a very steep majority of these groups are not evil overly-judgemental ‘Jesus Freaks’ blowing up abortioin clinics. They are good people, following a good message, and trying to live a good life. When observed and practiced, that can be very contagious to other free-minded individuals who decide to join. And not one of these articles considers that perhaps that is what has transpired in the Coloroado clubhouse. That is something so many of these secular ellitist celebrities will never understand.

I’m done. Good debate.

Enjoyed it, gentlemen.

Not only that, but that site, like the Nation, merely used the original USA Today story as their source (all the quotes are directly from there). The statement about encouraging bible study is merely an unsubstantiated view that the author gives based on his interpretation of that article.

I have to admit I have never been around a “whole bunch of Christian athletes,” but seeing how they apparently exist on almost every team and there have been few issues regarding them (except for isolated incidents like Smoltz and Church of the Nats) I can’t see any reason to pillory the Rockies.

Maybe the reason I’m making a big deal out of it is because you made a big deal out of the USA Today article which, again, I believe is very misleading.

That’s actually the article I was quoting, not Monfort himself. It’s just more rehash though. The point is ultimately that there are four born-agains running that team. As their quotes indicate, they’ve allowed that to influence their philosophy. That’s not debatable. And that was the only thing I had an issue with. You say the article is incorrect. I say, at least in this case, where there’s smoke there’s fire. My own personal experience tells me that when a whole bunch of Christian Athletes get together, it isn’t always a good thing. And that’s really all I was trying to say. You’re making a way bigger deal of that than is really necessary.

What I doubt is your statement here about the Rockies “strongly encouraging” players to attend weekly bible study. You made that up. There is no quote or statement in that article to support that..

The USA Today article also fails to support your view of an exclusionary, bigoted working environment.

VCarver is absolutely thrashing you on this subject right now. And, no offense to him, it’s not very difficult. All he is doing is pointing out the blatant inaccuracies of your paraphrasing an article that perhaps you should read just one more time. I mean…you are seriously just making things up.